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World AIDS Day 2010

First of all, this is not a contest. Every story will be published on my blog (and re-posted to Facebook & Twitter via links) in the order in which I receive them.

You may send them to me within the body of an email, or by attaching a document, and I will post them. I expect they would be too long to send as a simple comment to the blog. The title of each blog post will include your name (or any part thereof, or not at all, should you wish to remain anonymous).

The story, as specific as possible (because it would be easy to lump many stories into one, I know), would be a response to, “Please write a story illustrating how HIV/AIDS has impacted your life.” I would expect everything from happy to sad and/but HIV/AIDS might only be a part of a bigger story. In the narrative form, such a story would have a beginning, a middle, and an end and would include dialogue. “The end” does not mean death, necessarily, as it could simply be the end of the particular anecdote that you are recounting. It could be written from any point of view, in the first-person or otherwise. Obviously, in light of the approach of World AIDS Day, I would ask that it be a true story. That being the case, you may want to change names of others, both living and dead, or limit yourself to first names only. That’s up to you. It’s a reminder that one’s absence-through-death does not take away what may have been one’s wish in life for anonymity – be it an issue of stigma or a feeling of vulnerability on the internet.

I hope that you’ll join me – and feel free to pass this on to others you think might be interested. By being published on my blog your work would be part of the Creative Commons copyright there ( https://myjourneywithaids.wordpress.com ).

Please let me know if I might expect something from you. If this works, we’ll try to make it an annual event among friends!